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1.3.5-Pilferingapples
Brick!Club Book 1: Fantine, Vol.3. Ch. 5: Bombarda’s or, Did You Know Hugo Really Likes Parisians? If not, never fear! There will be many many opportunities to learn! But this is the first! I love that this chapter is basically just Hugo shouting THEY WILL SEE THE PEOPLE RISE, even though of course, later on…not so much. But eventually! And for the rest of the century! IT TOTALLY HAPPENS, so good call, Hugo, good meta-foreshadowing. And bad call, oh Prefect of Police! You will learn, and it will be painful. …Yeah, not a lot to say about this chapter? It’s one of those turns where Hugo just lays everything out too much to really comment. I…wonder why he uses the Moliere quotes instead of just saying “they stomped under the table” or whatever, but I always wonder why Authors Gotta Be Like That. Commentary Gascon-en-exile Look, a random political digression - this one is at least marginally better disguised (and shorter) than many of Hugo’s digressions, but the second-to-last sentence - “''Cette note écrite en marge du rapport Angles, nous revenons à nos quatre couples''" - is hilarious in its admittance that said four couples are irrelevant here except for providing an excuse for the political commentary. The commentary itself, though, strikes me as a bit confused. Yes, it’s established that governments chronically underestimate the power of the masses, but the masses themselves are here criticized as notoriously fickle. Two years after Waterloo and the restoration of the monarchy they’re still singing royalist songs and wearing fleurs-des-lis in honor of the Bourbons, and Hugo seems to be an adherent (like many in the 19th century, Tolstoy being a notable exception) of the Great Man of History theory, the idea that charismatic political figures are almost wholly responsible for moving the otherwise aimless and confused populace toward their particular ends. As Hugo points out, these same people now praising the monarchy once supported Danton and Buonaparte, and of course their fickleness will eventually come back to bite the Amis in their collective asses (must resist urge to turn that into an innuendo…). I’m not sure what to make of the fact that the urban delights described in the first half of the chapter are all indicative of bourgeois culture, even though the government refers to them as “''canaille bonne''" ("good scoundrel/riff-raff") and Hugo talks about the "petit homme,” both of which have connotations usually associated with the lower class. It’s all very panem et circum regardless, so possibly there’s a point to be made here that a complacent and indolent middle class is more important for suppressing potential revolutions than is caring very much at all about the people who are truly at the bottom. The 19th century is full of rhetoric about class naturalization, after all, reinforcing the belief that the lower classes are naturally stupid and easily swayed and, by extension, suggesting that the middle class is more dangerous should it realize its potential to sway. Can we get back to the dinner party now? Politics bores and depresses me. Kalevala-sage I’m so grossly tardy that I almost didn’t bother with this chapter—not much commentary from this politically-nonchalant crowd (or is that just me?), anyway—until I realized how much Literary Lighting Commentary™ can be found here. Because at least I'' think it’s remarkable that Hugo ''actually gets a look right: as sunlight filters through airborne particles over the Champs-Élysees, his statues “rear in a cloud of gold…” It’s the Tyndall effect and it’s beautiful. Until he forsakes his newfound photorealism, that is, by hanging a "drapeau blanc, vaguement rose au soleil couchant," a “white flag, vaguely pink in the sleeping sun.” You only have one source, and you’re already using it for your amber haze effect, Hugo, do you even know how sunsets work? I thought you had it for a second. Oh, well… For the record, I’m in pre-show and writing from a catwalk (professionalism? what professionalism?); I’m sure my post is completely in keeping with my thespian inclinations. Oh, and Favourite’s, too, as revealed in I.III.VI, which I also missed…on the off-chance that anyone’s reading this retroblog, I have been roped into five productions in as many weeks, and while this puts me in heaven (well, a series of theatres), these are not ideal Tumbling conditions. I’ll just end on one of my favourite brick quotes: "Les Champs-Élysées, pleins de soleil et de foule, n’étaient que lumière et poussière, deux choses dont se compose la gloire," or: "Crowded with sunlight, the Champs-Élysées were but light and dust—the two substances with which glory is made." Why even be surprised. Pilferingapples (reply to Kalevala-sage) Hey, I read ALL the retro blogs (if they’re tagged and Tumblr lets me find them.:P) even if I don’t respond to everything! I get the distinct feeling Hugo understands natural lighting very, very well— and cares not even one little bit. :P BUT I CARE, please keep talking lighting with us!